US Payments Business Square Picks Oz For Latest Venture

Square – the mobile payments business set up by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey – has chosen Australia as the first market outside the US in which to launch its new contactless card reader.

The battery-powered reader – connected by Wi-Fi – would be aimed at small to medium sized businesses, according to Ben Pfisterer, Australian country manager for Square.

“Australia is one of the most advanced payment markets in the world,” Pfisterer told the AAP news service. He said advantages include the prevalence Down Under of microchip-equipped cards and the popularity of contactless payment via systems such as Visa’s payWave and Mastercard’s PayPass.

“Australians love contactless – up to 80 percent of transactions done on Visa or Mastercard are done on contactless cards,” he added.

Square’s new contactless card reader is a palm-sized device that plugs into the headphone jack of a mobile phone or tablet.